Elsa Peretti jewellery for British Museum

Jewellery designer has donated more than thirty pieces to go on show at the museum.

BY Hilary Alexander |
30 April 2009

'Bone cuff' in silver. Right: gold lacquer square bamboo purse

The British Museum's contemporary jewellery exhibition has been strengthened by a gift from Tiffany & Co., of jewellery, accessories and tableware designed by the award-winning designer, Elsa Peretti.

The more than 30-piece collection, which goes on show from May 1st, features many of Peretti's most iconic pieces, almost all designed between 1974 and 1986, and marks the 35th anniversary this year of her collaboration with the world-famous jewellers.

Peretti, 69, is renowned for her long association with Tiffany, for whom she has created more than 100 designs in silver, gold, diamonds, lacquer, bamboo, basketry and glass. Her instantly recognisable approach to design is inspired by organic forms such as beans and bones, marine life, teardrops, hearts, snakes and scorpions and a fascination for traditions of different cultures around the world. The sensation of how a piece feels, when held, is as important to her as the fluidity of how it looks.

"The day Elsa Peretti became a part of Tiffany & Co., was the day we entered a new era in our history of design innovation," said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and CEO of Tiffany & Co.

Born in Florence, Peretti studied interior design in Rome, but made her name as a fashion model in Barcelona, before moving to New York in the 1960s.

It was here she turned to jewellery design, creating pieces for designers such as Halston, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo and Oscar de la Renta. She began her association with Tiffany in 1974. Her debut collection of sinuous and sensual sculptural shapes caused a sensation in the jewellery world. She went on to design some of the company's best-selling pieces, such as the Tiffany 'open heart', the 18-carat gold mesh bracelet, the gold 'bean' necklaces and 'diamonds by the yard' which revolutionised jewellery design - most of which are included in the exhibition.

Also on show are silver candlesticks inspired by the human bones used by Capucine monks to decorate shrines, which are made in Spain and Italy; handmade glass vessels from the master glass-blowers from the Seguso company in Murano; a bamboo bag made by a master bamboo-weaver in Japan; rock crystal scent-bottles which echo 17th and 18th century Chinese snuff-bottles; and a supple, mesh scarf, made of knitted gold links.

The Peretti display will sit alongside a temporary display which also highlights the theme of cultural dynamism in a modern and technological world, in which each object tells a story of cultural survival, adaptation or radical breaks with the past.

To celebrate the gift to the British Museum, Tiffany is launching two special edition Elsa Peretti pieces: A free form pendant in black jade on a 30-inch mesh chain in 18-carat gold, priced at £1,770; and a silver open heart pendant suspended from a 30-inch 'diamonds by the yard' necklace, at £860.